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Poster:
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 gabe@archive.org |
Date:
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April 23, 2007 07:43:38am |
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Forum:
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texts
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Subject:
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Re: watermarks |
So that you understand:
Microsoft does not own these texts - the people of the world do! With Millions of out of copyright material to be scanned and put online and offering universal access - we need to keep our scanning machine/centres operating. We look for and receive funding from a variety of sources. Are we charging you to read these books? No. Are we asking you for monies to download these images and pdf's? No. These are open and free to use. There are plenty of text's not only in the Canadian Libraries section but the American as well, where, physical users ( prior to scanning) have defaced books with high lighters, pens, pencils, comments....... ths is also considered defacement. Your anger and frustration stems from simply not liking MS - that's your choice. Does the watermark prevent you from absorbing the knowledge within a given text? I doubt it. So try to understand how thousands of books that we scan everyday, with the effort of a tremendous amount of people make it on line, for you to read in the comfort of your own home.
Ohhh by the by......there's a reason the watermark is there and it's so that these materials can be kept open and free:)
Cheers
G.
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Poster:
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stbalbach |
Date:
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April 23, 2007 05:04:46pm |
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Forum:
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texts
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Subject:
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Re: watermarks |
1) I would not spend the money to print a book with watermarks, for example via LuLu.
2) IA is partly a user supported non-profit, like PBS, I donate money annually to IA and PBS for the good work they do. PBS shows don't have watermarks every second of every episode. It's tastefully handled at the beginning and end of each show, maybe an intermission "Brought to you by.."
3) The need for watermarks on every single page only makes sense in the context of MS warfare with Google over searching rights.
I'm hoping someone technical can find a solution to remove the watermarks, my guess is the documents have multiple layers and it should be fairly straight forward to remove the watermark layer.
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Poster:
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Greg Lindahl |
Date:
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April 26, 2007 06:08:19pm |
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Forum:
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texts
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Subject:
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Re: watermarks |
Woah -- how can you conclude that his anger stems from disliking MS? Maybe he hates all ugly watermarks? How do you know the difference?
I hope you aren't in marketing...
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Poster:
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Jimmy Pitt |
Date:
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May 09, 2007 11:13:17am |
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Forum:
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texts
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Subject:
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Re: watermarks |
You completely miss the point. Of course many books have been defaced -- it's sad, but there's nothing one can do about it. But Microsoft (and others -- I have no axe to grind with MS as such) DO have a choice not to deface books further. Sadly, they (and you) prefer advertising to preservation: many of the texts that MS have digitised are completely ruined by watermarks across the text, footnotes, images, maps . . .
I'm sure nobody minds seeing Microsoft get credit for the work they are doing, but please don't be so naive as to think that they are being altruistic: if they were, they wouldn't need to deface every page of every book, like some mindless vandal with a felt-tip pen.
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Poster:
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csb99 |
Date:
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May 15, 2007 06:13:02am |
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Forum:
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texts
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Subject:
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Re: watermarks |
A response , particularly to gabe@archive.org . I am not in the slightest concerned with what the watermark says . If it said "scanned for archive.org " I would find it no less unpleasant . If the point of a text is just to " absorb the knowledge of a given text " then a watermark is insignificant : if the point is the appearance of the text , like the scan of the 1485 Jenson De Citivate Dei , it is defacement . This book is only of interest for its appearance : if someone really intended to read it doubtless there are better scholarly texts or translations much easier to read . If someone underlined or used a highlighter on that I would think it criminal . "Ohhh by the by......there's a reason the watermark is there and it's so that these materials can be kept open and free " . Most books here do not have this watermark , Microsoft has sponsored scanning for over a year without implementing this policy : you are saying then , all books scanned after the middle of April 2007 and sponsored by Microsoft have to have a watermark to be open and free . I really would like this to be explained . The reasoning behind this one is perfectly opaque to me .
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Poster:
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benjclark |
Date:
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July 19, 2007 09:15:07am |
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Forum:
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texts
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Subject:
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Re: watermarks |
Fine, we have to put up with MS's commercial inthe margins. However, there should be a process to remove them, especially in the case where the watermark interferes with text, footnotes, images, etc.
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Poster:
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stbalbach |
Date:
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July 19, 2007 02:41:58pm |
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Forum:
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texts
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Subject:
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Re: watermarks |
I believe the PDF was made using commercial software
http://www.luratech.com/ which supports multiple layers.
Quote:
"LuraDocument JPM is the world’s first implementation of the new ISO standard JPEG2000/Part6 for the compression of scanned color documents containing both bitonal elements (such as text and technical drawings) and images. Text and image components are segmented and compressed separately, each with the optimal algorithms. In the process, the bitonal layer is stored losslessly in Fax Group 4 format,while the fore- and background layers are compressed using the JPEG2000 standard."
There may be more information from this vendor about how to remove the microsoft watermark layer. We need a PDF guru with access to tools to figure this out.
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Poster:
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Branko Collin |
Date:
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May 27, 2007 12:57:04pm |
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Forum:
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texts
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Subject:
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Re: watermarks |
Great way to insult your patrons, Gabe.
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Poster:
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sorrento |
Date:
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September 01, 2007 03:06:25pm |
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Forum:
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texts
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Subject:
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Re: watermarks |
You can bet that when big business gets involved in a project like this there is no 'free lunch.' What we have here is Microsoft trying to catch up with Google. By all means let them have some credit for their scanning efforts, but wouldn't you think their involvement would be adequately acknowledged by a credit on the verso of the title page?.....It is possible to get rid of he watermark but it requires putting the PDF through OCR software such as Abbyy Fineradrer. Avoid the temptation to remove the watermark in Abbyy- I tried this and lost the material completely. The best way is to save the OCR results as a Word doc. Then open (in Word) : Edit/ Replace, enter 'Scanned by Microsoft (R)', enter nothing in the Replace box, press Find next, then press Replace all, and voila, the cursed words disappear. This isn't a trouble-free solution because the text you have after OCR needs to be checked for accuracy.
I have scanned numerous books for PG and similar sites on a purely voluntary basis.I don't expect restrictions to be placed on the use of texts I have contributed. The truth is that Microsoft, as much as it would wish, cannot restrict the use of the books they have had scanned, except physically through use of the watermark. THey can do nothing to stop the scanned text being used by any individual in whatever way he or she wishes - removing the watermark does not as far as I knowinfringe any law. I have noticed that quite a few of Microsoft's scanned texts are ones that I have scanned independently in the past. I am tempted to upload them so they can be used without restriction.
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